1.3.6-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Book 1: Fantine Vol.3 Ch. 6: A Chapter of Self-Admiration In Which There Is A Bed In a Restaurant and This Is Horrible? I continue to like Favorite quite a bit, and I honestly have no idea how much of that goes with authorial intent at this point. She obviously knows the men are only playing, and she’s blatantly playing right back. Blacheville can’t possibly believe her OTT protestations, since they would be kind of scary taken literally. Also her comments about weather and butter and peas kind of freak me out?!? Because there aren’t enough fresh vegetables to be had and there’s not enough butter and it’s raining all the time, oh no, does this mean it’s too wet for the cows to be getting good grazing?!? Are the spring plants rotting in the ground? HOW MUCH RAIN IS THERE WILL THERE BE MASSIVE AGRICULTURAL LOSSES will peasants have to abandon their farms and move into the city, will the swell of immigrants help contribute to plague-ready conditions while the weather-provoked crop failures lead to famine and social unrest? THESE THINGS MATTER SO MUCH WHY IS FAVORITE THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICES A FOOD SHORTAGE OMSB * deep breaths * Okay, okay, country girl calming down. Calming all the way down. Just…butter, y’all. It’s very important. …Uh, in other noteworthy details, there is a bed and the restaurant uses that for seating guests? That sounds both wonderfully comfy and grossly unhygienic! Next time: Oh goody, we get to learn about Tholomyes’ philosophy. I’m sure everyone is looking forward to that. Commentary Gascon-en-exile Why does Favourite’s capacity for melodramatic and ultimately pointless conversation remind me of The Sun Also Rises? Of course it’s because this set is also being a bunch of Parisian hedonists at the moment, but there’s a sort of ecstatic futility to the whole thing - particularly because it would be hard to tell how much of anything she says here is genuine. Of course I know a thing or two about playing vapid for men myself so I shouldn’t talk.. Even her disgust at the bed seems a bit hyperbolic. They’ve already finished eating on it, and now she’s going to complain? And though I can’t recall the Brick Thénardiers’ inn too well, it’s probably worse than this. Health regulations, what are those? Pilferingapples (reply to Gascon-en-exile) Health Regulations: What ARE those? Was there any sort of official or even semi-official, Diner’s Club type guide to establishments at this point? #Brick!Club #TI.L3.C6 #Favourite #And her self-admiration #On a bed #With three women and four men #But not an orgy #Though they’ve probably done that at some point too …I cannot say how much I appreciate the unique insights you bring without sarcastic, can I? But I laughed a rib out here. Theonlycheeseleft NOW I AM ALSO CONCERNED ABOUT THE COWS. I don’t have a great deal to say about this chapter that everyone else hasn’t said, which is generally “I like Favourite more than I think I’m supposed to.” I do have one translation note though, which is that while the FMA translates Blachevelle’s reaction to Favourite as this: Blachevelle smiled with the sensual complacency of a man whose self-esteem is tickled. Hapgood’s translation reads: Blachevelle smiled with the voluptuous self-conceit of a man who is tickled in his self-love. Which, I know it’s mostly just a divergence in translation style, but jeez Hapgood, I can hear how much you detest Blachevelle from here. I do really like the way Hapgood hones in on his selfishness, though, the repetition of the world “self” to show just exactly who Blanchevelle is concerned with. Oh boy, oh boy, the next chapter, I am going to have ~OPINIONS~, I bet.